8.10.2011

Apparently all I have to do is publicly complain about how awful the heat is, and Bam! No more heat. I just looked at the forecast for the next 10 days. Not one single day above 85 degrees. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! But even with the lack of heat that inspired this whole project, Ice Cream Week rolls on with Day 3—Ice Cream on the go! Kind of. We’re making popsicles!

Popsicles remind me of being a kid, sucking all the juice out of a FlavorIce, then just throwing the ice part away. Or getting one of those red, white, and blue Bomb Pops from the ice cream truck. And those Push-Up Pops. Oh! And Bill Cosby and his Pudding Pops!

Popsicles are perfect treats for a quick snack. Just grab and go! They also tend to be a lot easier to prepare, and a lot faster too. No churning in an ice cream maker. Just pour in the molds and freeze! I can’t tell you the last time I made popsicles, but now that I remember how easy it is, and how much variety you can make, I’m definitely making popsicles all the time now!

First up, Peach Popsicles. These came from a book called Ice Pops by Shelly Kaldunski.

They’re a delicious way to use up some of those peaches that are coming into season right now! Just cut them up, blend them with some sugar, water, and lemon juice, and you’ve got yourself a healthy, yummy, frozen treat! Peaches are one of my favorite fruits, so I definitely love these popsicles.

Next, we’ve got Blueberries and Cream Popsicles.

These came from the Summer Special Issue of Everyday Food Magazine. As soon as I saw the magazine, still wrapped in plastic in our backroom at work, waiting to be put out, with its close up of a delicious looking fruit popsicle on the cover, I ripped into the bundle, and immediately walked up front to buy it. And these? Delicious. Albeit, a bit messy, and I had a little bit of issue with it.. I’m not the biggest fan of regular blueberries. I’m much more partial to the teeny tiny, sweet little wild blueberries. So I used a bag of frozen wild blueberries I got at Trader Joe’s. Which ended up tasting great. They were just harder to swirl around and instead sat in a big clump near the bottom of the popsicle. Which caused the popsicle to break when I took it out of the mold, because there wasn’t anything solid down there to freeze together. Oh, and they tend to melt really quickly. Like really quickly.

Still delicious though. Just needs a bit of tweaking.

The Neapolitans though, now those are tasty!

Layers of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Mmm.. Really good. The chocolate and vanilla parts are creamy, although the chocolate is a little too cocoa powdery for my taste. I was hoping for more of a fudgsicle flavor. The strawberry, with its high water content in the fruit, tends to be a little more icy than creamy, but still really good! There are a quite a few more recipes for popsicles in the EDF Summer issue, and you should still be able to find it on newsstands through the end of the month, so check it out!

Although I didn’t get to make anything from it yet, there’s another really good popsicle book out right now called Perfect Pops by Charity Ferreira. It’s got some seriously tasty sounding flavors in it, like Key Lime Pops and Chai Latte Pops. So if you’re into popsicles, be sure to check this one out too!

1. Cut peaches into chunks and place in blender or food processor. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and ¼ cup of water to blended and puree until mixture is smooth.
2. Divide mixture evenly among ice pop molds. Place in freezer. When pops are partially frozen, about an hour, insert sticks, then continue to freeze until solid, about 3 more hours.

1. In a small saucepan, bring blueberries and ¼ cup sugar to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, crushing berries with a wooden spoon, until mixture is syrupy, 3 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together ½ cup sugar, yogurt, and cream until sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Pour yogurt and blueberry mixtures, alternating them, into ice-pop molds, making 5 to 6 layers in each. With a wooden skewer, swirl mixtures together. Insert ice-pop sticks and freeze until solid, about 6 hours.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, cream, sugar, and vanilla until sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Measure out 1 cup of mixture into a small bowl, and whisk with cocoa powder until smooth. Transfer to a quart-sized zip-top bag.
2. Measure out another ½ cup of vanilla mixture and add to food processor or blender with strawberries, pureeing until smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a liquid measuring cup with a spout. Transfer remaining vanilla mixture to another quart-sized zip-top bag.
3. With scissors, snip a ½-inch hole in one corner of the bag with the cocoa mixture and pipe evenly into the bottom third of each ice-pop mold. Gently tap molds on the work surface to smooth. (Wipe away any smudges on the sides of the mold to ensure a crisp, clean division between the colors.) Snip a hole in the corner of the bag of vanilla mixture and pipe an even layer over chocolate mixture, filling 2/3 of the way full. Tap the molds on the counter to smooth. Top with strawberry mixture. Insert sticks into molds and freeze until solid, about 6 hours.

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The Busty Baker is a newly 30-something retail slave who spends most of her downtime covered in flour in her tiny apartment kitchen, compulsively checking Twitter, and talking to her cat. Someday she'll figure out what she wants to do with her life, but until then, she'll continue to pawn her baked goods off on anyone who will take them.